All is still, the chooks (chickens) free range in the paddock nearby where the kangaroos normally graze each morning

I am thankful…

for my husband and children 🙂 We recently enjoyed a week together on our family holidays, my heart just swells watching our children all together, interacting, loving. We enjoyed at week by the lake, only a 5-10 minute drive to several beaches; kayaking, rafting, snorkeling, swimming, surfing, digging in the sand, card and board games, dancing, ninja and daily runs for some were the rhythm of our days. We saw plenty of whales, dolphins, sharks and jellyfish, the latter two a little too up close for comfort which put a damper on activities. The children (those 11 years and older) each planned, shopped and cooked for a day each, I didn’t need to be in the kitchen all week! It was fascinating to see their approach and I realised anew we influence our children greatly. Holidaying with children spread over a 20 year age range creates requires different logistics but it was truly a wonderful week with amazing people 🙂

I am thinking…

I can’t believe it’s been four months since my last post!! In twelve years of blogging this is the longest I’ve ever gone without writing! So often I’ve wanted to ‘pick up the pen’ and begin again, but the longer you leave it the harder it is to start again. What to say, where to start? Around and around my thoughts go and I’m frozen in indecision, to never begin. My hiatus all began with ‘life’, which has been rich to say the least, but then the older your children and extended family become, life becomes immensely, exponentially richer. My hiatus continued because I read/listened to ‘experts’ telling me how to blog, frankly they just sucked up my creativity and hindered the process. Yet the type of blogs/posts I’m drawn to have a lovely chatty style, so I worry if I adopt that style, which I think I did in the earlier years, I’m releasing too much information, overthinking to find the balance. So around and around I go and write nothing! I’ve a variety of posts percolating so let’s hope jumping back in with a daybook post gives a great kickoff

I am reflecting back…

that rich life I mentioned, let’s see some highlights

July

we celebrated our Mega Birthday Week, our three birthdays in one week event. Our girl turned 13, a milestone birthday, our son 11, and our older lad turned 18! His City brothers came home to surprise him 🙂 and along with four of his siblings, his father and a party of mates, they went paint balling up the Coast

we were blessed with the birth of a new baby niece, in Outback Queensland

our annual homeschool Sports Day in held June was postponed and held in July this year, once again we had over 100 children. An event PC and I organised and hosted with the assistance of our local team of helpers

our local homeschool group also held our homeschool concert in the same month

August

our oldest turned 24!! Where are the years flying to?!!

we attended our niece’s Wedding on the South Coast. The last of three sisters to marry in the past two years 🙂

our homeschool group hosted writing and art workshops over four week blocks

September

celebrated our son’s 9th birthday

we were blessed with a great nephew in Victoria

meet our new baby niece who was visiting from Outback Queensland

celebrated Father’s Day

PC made bookcases to reach all the way to ceiling in our library. Making in total 9 more bookcases!!!

enjoyed many lazy mornings and afternoons swimming at our local River, only 3 minutes away, a beautiful spot

October

our daughter turned 16!! and received her Learner’s Driving Permit

children learnt how to paddle board

enjoyed our annual holiday (does 2 years in a row make it annual?) We are so blessed by our children, an absolutely lovely time had by all

home education isn’t always ‘sunshine and roses’, sometimes it requires simply one slow step after another, you worry that your children haven’t learnt anything ‘all month/term/year’, it feels as if ‘natural learning’ has become the default plan 😉 Yet when you stop and take stock of the big picture you realise whilst you’ve been mired and stressed in the ‘small picture’ your life is richer than you think, your children have achieved more than you’ve acknowledged. I haven’t forgotten your question Peta, I’ve started a post for you xxx

Celebrating the liturgical year……

finally purchased Mary McArthur’s liturgical year colouring book in the hope to assist us in living the liturgical year more fully. Hasn’t happened yet, perhaps it would help if I printed the sheets out 😉 I ponder should I print these out weekly, monthly? Some system is certainly needed

From the kitchen…

Spring and Summer is always the time of plenty of BBQs and salads, I always appreciate the lighter cuisine. Came home from our holidays inspired to be more creative in the kitchen, the emotion lasted a fortnight 😉 I’ve two sisters-in-law who love cooking, I’d like to be like that, to love cooking, is falling in love with a certain creativity something you can make happen? If so, how?

I am creating…

shorts with our girls, and then skirts and then…. This week along with a few friends we all gathered with our girls and enjoyed a morning of sewing instruction. All four of us can sew and yet none of us have passed these skills onto our girls! feeling increasingly guilty, we hit upon a solution. Plan was to come together, each mother teaching and working with her girls, using the group synergy to kickstart us off. It was a success 🙂 with each girl returning home with shorts nearly complete, we’ve plans to meet again next fortnight

I am working on…

my fitness level and noticing big improvements. It’s been a whole year since we, PC & I and sometimes the children, began participating in Parkrun, a weekly community run of 5km( 3.10mi). At the end of each run you receive a Personal Best (PB) record of your time, after months of still struggling to complete the course and improve my PB, I’ve recently begun running 2-3 times through the week as well. Now I’m feeling a difference in my fitness level, running 5km isn’t the insurmountable it was and as a bonus my PB is improving too. PC has embraced the training with great enthusiasm and has long been running a few times through the week as well as completing a 10km (6.2mi) run each week, he’s recently begun running even further than 10km!

*Rather excited to realise at the end of our holiday week that we have a new family ‘tradition’, attending Parkrun together on holidays.

I am going…

to the tri-annual Rotary book sale in the next town over later this week. Rather excited as I missed the last one due to niece’s Wedding. There are always thousands of books at this sale which sell for $6 a bag, and children’s books are FREE!! Always hopeful I will find a Treasure again like the year I found an entire set of Catholic Treasure Box, 1-20!!!!

I am praying…

for my children, each one has differing needs

for my husband

for extended family members

for godchildren

our Nation

I try to emulate my Nanna’s hard won wisdom, “pray and down’t worry as it achieves nothing”. Padre Pio says it well, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”

I am pondering….

the need to be certain your children are educated about and alert for scams. Yesterday a ‘scammer’ rang, to discuss our internet’s slow speed (which is accurate), an offshore, heavily accented voice, wanting Princess to access sites via computer, she was suspicious and told him to ring back her Dad at night. Which he did, PC always suspicious tried to ascertain what company he represented, mumble, mumble, he was extremely persistent, was telling PC he needed to press x and then y key, PC googled and told him he was told that was a scam to access our computers and he wouldn’t, hung up and he rang back!! Three times he rang back. On the fourth ring I answered and asked for his number as I wanted to report him, he says “I understand ma’am but I just need you to..” I hung up, he rang back another two times!! I just kept picking up and disconnecting. In the end we pulled the line from the wall. Seriously what did he hope to achieve??!!

I am reading…

binge reading a new author. I’m a bit like that, I find a series or author I enjoy and I jump in deep. Our children have the same approach, much of our book purchases over the years have been gradually adding to series they love

I am writing…

oh so many posts in drafts and further ones percolating about;

large family logistics when holidaying

book posts galore, these are time consuming to research and write, but a favourite topic

homeschooling when struggling to cope, the reality of homeschooling

All About Reading Level 2 review

book care, book covering

a tour of our new bookcases

homeschooling and tertiary education

motivating reluctant readers, have to find the ‘solution’ myself first 😉

boys raft building exploits

learning notes

etc etc

I am hearing…

I’m up early before the entire household, it’s all so silent I can hear the computers hum. A favourite part of the day

I am struggling…

to be motivated about anything, sometimes we need to ‘nurture yourselves’ but there comes a time when we need to ‘pull up your bootstraps’ and ‘get on with it’. I suspect I’m at that time 😉

just love, love, love the new library look with our floor to ceiling bookcases. Feeling extremely loved and blessed by my amazing husband’s talent and support!!!

One of my favorite things…

seeing the Jacaranda trees in bloom throughout our town. Our Jacarandas and our annual Festival bring scores of tourists to our town each year, every year the numbers grow. Late October/early November many streets were an avenue of purple, it’s always sad to see the bloom go

A few plans for this week…

it’s a busier than ordinary week this one, highlights include:

sewing & computer building workshop,

giving two public talks about homeschooling, one in our town, one an hour away, hosted by our local council

doctor’s appointment

dance lessons x 4

writing workshop with homeschool group

children coming and going for work/study, sometimes involving me being chauffeur